


Rain

by airiP4



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Happy Ending, LBSC Sprint Fic Challenge, Moving On, stressed marinette, supportive luka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27392287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airiP4/pseuds/airiP4
Summary: It's raining in Paris and Marinette is nowhere to be found, but Luka is determined to find her - always there for her.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 10
Kudos: 64





	Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the LBSC Sprint fic challenge.
> 
> Visual prompt: Rain - by me (https://airi-p4.tumblr.com/post/633233706117677056/lukanette-february-day-24-rain-v21)

Luka was trained in weather knowledge. He would know when it was going to rain or when a storm was coming, just like a pirate. Low mist or clouds in the morning: stratus, cirrus, cumulus - or cumulonimbus: the fiercest of stormy clouds. But that rain- it just couldn’t have been predicted. 

‘An akuma’, Luka figured. He didn’t bring an umbrella with him- of course not: ‘it wasn’t supposed to rain, dammit!’ So he just waited for the rain to stop out by the gates of the Lycée, humming to pass the time. A few minutes later, his phone rang. It was Juleka. 

“Hello? Jules? What’s wrong? Do you have an umbrella with you?” 

“Luka! Is Marinette with you?” She asked, exalted.

“Marinette? No, she isn’t with me. What happened?”

Luka could hear Juleka’s gasp through the phone. “She- she’s disappeared, Luka! She’s nowhere to be found! We’ve been looking for her everywhere but nothing! Lila- We- We were harsh to her and-!”, she cried in regret.

“Calm down, Juleka. It’s ok, we’ll find her. Where are you?”

“At school…”

“Ok, stay there in case she comes back. Don’t worry, we’ll find her. I promise”, he assured her and she calmed down a little. “I’ll go check if she has come home and I’ll let you know if I find her. Call me if she comes back”

Luka started to run under the rain towards the Liberty, looking at the skyline of Paris in case he saw Ladybug - Marinette. He has been aware of the weight on her shoulders for a while and was afraid she would crumble soon because of the pressure she was under. And maybe that’s what happened- he couldn’t be sure yet. 

After assuring she wasn’t at the Liberty, he rushed out again. He was so focused on seeking out for her he didn’t even take an umbrella or his jacket with him. He was desperate and worried.

Thinking of the places she liked the most, he had a hunch on where she could be: Trocadero, next to the Eiffel Tower, where she usually sketched. 

It wasn’t easy to see in the rain, but with his eagerness to find her, Luka’s dilated pupils easily spotted her. The sound of Marinette’s sad sobs entered his ears, confirming he had finally found her. She was under a statue, face buried between her knees. Relieved, Luka approached to see her safe and called her name, softly: “Marinette”.

Marinette reacted a little and looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Luka…”, she said before hugging her legs again. “Today’s been a horrible day, Luka… This rain- I hate this rain!”, she sobbed.

“It’s ok, Marinette, you don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to”

“I failed everyone... my friends, my parents, my part- my best friend…” ‘all of Paris’, she couldn’t add. “Adrien too… They must hate me…”, she sank deeper in her knees.

“No one hates you, Marinette”, he assured her. “Let’s go home, ok?” Luka begged, offering her his hand.

Marinette looked up at him, and reluctantly accepted his help to stand up. “Thank you, Luka... For caring and being here for me...”

“Always” he smiled at her, squeezing her hand in reassurance. “But I’m not the only one worried about you, you see?”, he pointed to the messages on his phone screen- from her mutual friends asking about her. “Your phone must have tons of messages of people worried about you as well. And can you see that up there? There’s Chat Noir looking for you too. And see the police car? That’s Agent Roger and Sabrina. Max and Markov are there too. And those bicycles? Alya and Nino. Kim is also running around all of Paris, Alix too, on her skates. Mylène and Ivan are too, on her father’s company bus for ‘the Mime’ and Nathianel and Marc posted a poster online on their account. I heard your Grandmother is also looking for you on her bike- even your grandfather is riding with her! And those helicopters? One belongs to Jagged Stone and the other one to Audrey Bourgeois- even Chloe is looking for you.” Luka looked at her moved face. “See? Everyone loves you, Marinette. You shouldn’t be so hard to yourself”.

Both of them were already drenched, so Luka didn’t mind that Marinette’s tears were wetting him even more as she hugged him and buried her face in his chest. He was happy to be there for her. “Luka…”, she whimpered.

“You know I’ll always be here for you, Marinette. You’re the most extraordinary girl I know”, he reassured her with a hand on her shoulders. “As for this rain- I’m sure Ladybug will soon recover her faith and confidence and defeat the source of the problem like she always does. I’m sure she’ll make this rain stop and the sun will come out again soon”, he winked.

Marinette nodded, cleaning up her tears. “Luka… Take me home…”. Luka smiled at her in response as they started to walk. 

Hand in hand under the rain, the two teenagers finally arrived at Marinette's house. All her friends and family were waiting worried for her after knowing Luka had found her. As soon as they saw her close, everyone jumped to apologize and hug her. “Marinette!!”. 

Luka stayed at the side- he had done his job. He knew she was going to be ok and was relieved she was feeling better. That’s all that mattered to him. Buried in hugs, Marinette found the moment to look at him from afar, dodging the heads of her friends in her way to lock gazes with him. And she was reassured by his smile once again, finding at last the calm and clarity she needed to fight the rain. She recovered the strength to smile back at him.

* * *

Later that day, Ladybug returned to her usual confident self, correcting her mistakes. She first had to apologize to Chat Noir for her harsh behaviour towards him before defeating the akuma. It’s not that it wasn’t his fault for pushing her to her limits, but it was a pile of aligned circumstances what made her explode: how her parents had accused her from lying when she was supposed to be ill and wasn’t in her room (Mr. Pigeon, again); how she went to school wearing her pajamas; how Alya pushed her to share an umbrella with Adrien, even if she didn’t want to; how a lighting startled her to the point she confessed out of nowhere her love for the blond boy -only to be utterly rejected with his ‘just a friend’ words-; how Lila and the rest of them did NOTHING to make Marinette feel better, but pressured her to try harder instead- only to end up being humiliated in front of the whole school; and, finally, how the akuma and Chat were getting on her nerves that she ended up harshly rejecting him with a: “I’ll never love you, stop it already!” 

Marinette felt like Luka was the only one who had always been by her side no matter what: during good times and her lowests’ - Always her ally. Never pushing himself onto her, just Luka being Luka- the support she needed in her life.

That day, it had all started with the rain. The same rain that washed away the love she had once, and the rain that let new water, salty water, find its way into her heart.

The rain of farewells and new beginnings.

“Miraculous Ladybug” she called for her power.

And the sun reappeared in her life with Luka softly smiling at her from the Liberty, his face dazzling with sunlight. And she felt the warmth of the sun too - the warmth she had unknowingly been looking for.

When she arrived home and detransformed, there was a message on her phone that stood out over the rest of them: Luka’s message.

“I’ll always be there for you”

Marinette pressed the phone to her chest, thankful to have Luka in her life. “Thank you <3” She replied, not regretting the little heart adjunted with the message. A heart created with letters and not emojis, wishing for her heart to open and take him in sometime soon.

A new radiant love without anymore rain.


End file.
